Oregon canola debate spills into Legislature

Negotiations over canola restrictions in Oregon’s Willamette Valley have spilled into the legislative arena with the introduction of a bill limiting annual plantings to 500 acres. Canola acreage in the valley was capped at 500 acres by lawmakers in 2013 after a dispute over how the crop should be regulated, but that limit was set to expire this year.The Oregon Department of Agriculture is currently planning to implement new rules for canola production before the 500-acre limit ends in July.The agency had submitted options for regulating canola in the region to lawmakers last November based on a study by Oregon State University, which found the crop didn’t pose greater risks than related species grown for specialty seed.While some of those regulatory alternatives would have required new legal authority for ODA — such as creating a public “pinning” system to avoid cross-pollination — the agency isn’t pursuing such proposals during the 2019 legislative session.During a Feb. 19 legislative hearing, the House Committee on Agriculture and Land Use introduced a bill that would extend the 500-acre limit indefinitely while directing ODA to develop recommendations to protect “the unique attributes of the specialty seed industry in this state.”